Loving Houston Blog

Grace Presbyterian Church & Paul Revere Middle School

Thanks to Melissa’s team at Grace Presbyterian Church for your faithful commitment to serving your community – for first having the difficult discussions around whether anyone would notice if the church closed its doors, and then taking the tough steps to transform the church’s culture.

Thank you for beginning with an extreme makeover of Paul Revere MS and then developing your partnership over the years with more renovations, Young Life Bible studies, mentoring programs, clothing-shoes-coats drives, teacher appreciations, etc. Thank you for your commitment to loving Paul Revere MS & Walnut Bend Elem students, teachers, faculty, and families because of your identity as followers of Jesus!

It’s obvious from the moment you walk into Paul Revere Middle School that Principal Hafedh Azaiez is committed to ensuring a safe environment. All along the hallways, “Welcome” is written along the top of each wall in over 20 languages so that students and families feel at home no matter what country they’re from or what their first language was. Mr. Azaiez takes his commitment to his students a step further by actively engaging with Grace Presbyterian Church volunteers. The partnership between Paul Revere and Grace actually began even before Mr. Azaiez arrived at the school, but has continued in mutual recognition of the opportunities that they can work together towards (like their mentoring program!). We especially love how Mr. Azaiez encourages his students to give back to the church through an annual Christmas program. What a wonderful way to teach these kids at an early age about mutual respect, others-centeredness, and the importance of giving back. As Mr. Azaiez explained, the diverse student and staff population is just like “one big family taking care of each other!”